Open Source Confusion?
Posted on November 17, 2005
The blogosphere buzz today is the official Launch of Open Source Media. It is a huge group of bloggers conglomerated together. I don’t know all the details, I was not invited to be a part of it, but it would seem that putting together such influential bloggers as Charles from Little Green Footballs, and Roger L. Simon, and the instarpundit, would have the blogosphere all excited. They are supposed to give the MSM a run for their money. However, the initial reaction around the blogosphere seems to range all over the place, and most often it is in the realm of confusion. Suprisingly, there is a lot of disappointment too, with many saying the hype was bigger than the outcome. The reactions I gathered seemed sceptical, and anti-climatic. Perhaps some are jumping too quickly to judge, we will see in time how they do. I also hope they don’t come off seeming like a group of elitists, but instead a powerhouse. They are all very well respected bloggers, and I wish them the best success in this venture. I hope they give the mainstream media hell, however, many in the blogosphere are having doubts. Many seem to view it kind of like the borg, and were worried the rules would infringe upon their blogging individuality. Here is some of the more skeptical reactions from the blogosphere.
That being said, there are a lot of things I still don’t understand yet.
For example, is OSM trying to be the Huffington Post, Blogads, the Associated Press, or something inbetween? The homepage for the site is — in my opinion — more than a little clunky compared to the The Huffington Post. So, if they’re looking to turn OSM into a major portal, the page still needs work.
On other hand, if they’re looking to be the next Blogads, then again, their approach is a little puzzling. They did manage to capture about — oh — I’m going to say half, maybe a little more, maybe a little less than that — of the conservative blog traffic out there. But, there are very few liberal and “other” types of blogs involved. So, if you look at demographics and the actual volume of impressions that they can sell to advertisers, they’re small and limited compared to Blogads. Moreover, given that we’re talking about long contracts every time a new blogger is added, they seem unlikely to ever catch up.
Furthermore, unlike most group blogs, OSM must have some very high fixed costs. They’re paying salaries out to all the bloggers at OSM. On top of that, they have a New York office, a LA office, and a staff of 8 people plus the 2 owners, none of whom are likely working for peanuts if they have to make a living in LA or New York.
Can they make enough off of tower ads in order to break even with that kind of overhead? Given what I know about the kind of ad rates that are being paid out right now on the net and the number of impressions they’re going to be able to serve, my gut instinct is no, they can’t even get close.
What does the OSM site offer that you can’t get more easily from other sites? News aggregation is done better by Yahoo News, Google News (and others); they can’t really be considered a blog aggregator, since—as far as I can tell—they just link to their own bloggers. There are many blog aggregators who do that better, and much more widely.
I wish OSM participants the best of luck, but so far it seems like an expensive attempt to do what Memeorandum already does better.
Riehlworld has an excellent roundup. In addition, their opinion.
I chose not to be a part of OSM, first, as I felt it was important to retain my independence for now - and in that sense, I am not a big fan. Additionally, I have significant issues with how it has been devised and what it could do to the blogosphere as presently comprised. The latter reason being just as good a reason to join it, BTW, depending upon your perspective.
The blogosphere will and must change - it’s inevitable - the nature of the beast, if you will. But insider battles are best left for another day. Ultimately, they should and will be best resolved by readership numbers and economic viability, not insider bickering - though that bickering is extremely important, too.
Like most bloggers, I am interested in raising my profile, so I was initially interested. However, at this point, it is unclear to me what OSM wants to be. One thing that about their front page that immediately struck me is that it doesn’t emphasize blogs. The only direct blog link is to Jeff Goldstein’s liveblogging of the launch. Really, the more I look at the page, the more I am struck by how un-bloggy it is (just having a blogroll or links to other pages that have links to blogs doesn’t count. The mystery of what the goal here is thickens.
Is it just me, or does the whole OSM media thing, uhm, well, underperform in the reality vs. hype department? I certainly hope they don’t think they’re going to be giving the MSM a run for its money with that sterile, lifeless excuse for a website. And I hardly think advertisers will be banging down the door.
I’m here and I still don’t completely get it, but keep listening…
I’m supposed to somehow be amazed that I could make money blogging? But I have BlogAds already, and the amount you are about to offer me is far less than I’m currently making with BlogAds. What is amazing me is that you’re writing to me as if I’m a babe-in-the-woods.
Outside the Beltway has a great roundup.
So does The Moderate Voice
Atlass Shrugs has pictures.
Update: Must read at Aaron’s CC. And another one: here. Open Sores?
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There’s nothing confusing about it. It’s all of the above: Blogads meets AP meets HuffPuff.
OSM is a joyous display of Darwinistic capitalism at work.
They are aggregating content and leveraging the “long tail” of the blogosphere to establish themselves as a media company.
The “big boys” have taken the wheel and because of their reps, all the wannabes are expected to jump on board their train. As they do, this creates the volume of both traffic and content that gives them immediate scale.
They will be turning to major advertisers and saying: “Look at all the eyeballs we control.”
Because blogs are gaining credibility and readership, OSM is positioning itself to reap the rewards as advertising dollars continue to move online.
To their credit, it’s about giving smaller bloggers a voice. As good stories along they “tail” will work their way up. However, the concern is: When the next “Rathergate” is uncovered by some small blog, will OSM be recognized as the AP of the blogosphere, thus obscuring the credit of the original author.
But who knows? Could be wrong.
Hope you are right Jack, I’m just showing the initial reactions around the blogosphere.
*shrug* They still need to fix my profile, or perhaps I really do live in Huston.
There’s a difference between experts and pundits. Most of the high profile bloggers are pundits producing rather predictable commentary on rather predictable topics.
There are undoubtedly some SME’s among them, but the gruel is often thin. Blog comments are a different story.
It just seems like a huge conglomerate to me. A consolidation of the blogs.
I guess I am missing what is new about this?! It is just new faces in an old profession. Part of what we face losing by developing a “new” media is the watchdog atmosphere that has been created by the bloggers. Am I only going to get their truths in reporting? Or should I continue to do what I do? Read the papers, watch the news, scan the blogoshere for various opinions and finally reach my own conclusions.
Jack has some good points. But the way he paints the picture, these guys are sell outs and actually joining the “system”. I don’t go to their sites often, not do i quote them often on my own blog or another blog I author at. Do you people all read them daily? How many of their comments are unique? I am just rather curious about it.
Don’t even worry about it — I signed up for it and got papers to sign and dot but then decided not too. They want you to take down BlogAds and put their ads on your site (which you would get paid) in return to be included. The catch is the ads that they put on is not only based on your traffic but less than what you could make off of BlogAds — and you had to sign a one-year contract.
I may be as dumb as dirt, but I just don’t get what OSM is supposed to be doing or why it’s so revolutionary. To me, it looks like an effort to form a self-selected “old bloggers’ club” that will give its members some elite cache with mainstream media outlets and among others in the blogging world.
Mark Daniels
13- Well Mark, I must be sitting next to you and dumb as dirt as well. Thanks for saying what I was really thinking!